On Thu, 03 Apr 2008 09:56:33 -0600, with neither quill nor qualm, F.
George McDuffee quickly quoth:

On Thu, 3 Apr 2008 07:13:09 -0400, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:
snip
Having covered this topic for some decades as a magazine reporter, I can
tell you that the US was the cheapest place to produce advanced machine
tools, for example, as far back as the early '90s. It's also been the
cheapest place to produce top-tier cars (ones that meet Western quality
standards) for about the same length of time. (Korea probably holds that
title now.) That's because we have the most productive manufacturing economy
in the world. As of five years ago (I haven't checked current figures), we
were roughly ten times as productive as China, for example.
snip
====================
Thanks for verifying data I had collected on the micro level some
time back [early to mid 90s], at several companies/divisions
making truck/automotive components. I thought that what I
observed and heard in the staff meetings was an isolated
aberration.

As incredible as it may seem, it appears that much of the job
outsourcing/off-shoring was not so much to save money as efforts
by "management" to "get back at" their workers [in my three
cases, 1 union and 2 non-union shops] for making too much money,
for causing problems by filing wage/OT and discrimination claims,
etc.

That's another reason I just love unions. They, and/or the employees,
turn into the tyrants they're trying to get out from under.


FWIW -- the 3 companies/divisions with which I was directly
involved nearly went bankrupt after major off-shoring [mainly
quality/deliver and warranty issues] and were "saved" only when
their major competitor purchased them. Within 3 years the major
competitor filed chapter 11, and is still in the process of
reorganization.

Interesting!


The "management" is now on the street [or
working at Walmart] along with the displaced workers.

It's too bad we can't say that of the union officials.

--
That man is the richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.
-- Henry David Thoreau